1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device for a vehicle such as an instrument panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For a vehicle such as an automobile, an instrument panel portion of a front part of a passenger compartment panel is provided with an indicating instrument (an instrument for a vehicle) having a plurality of instrument parts such as a speed meter, a tachometer, a coolant temperature gauge, an odometer, a trip meter, and so on.
In such an instrument, the peripheral of the instrument is configured to emit a ring-shaped light as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open 2002-81966.
However, the instrument for the vehicle according to the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid Open is complicated to construct and requires many parts at a significant cost.
Moreover, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open 2000-108722, there is provided an instrument for a vehicle including a small display section having a segment display section and a free display section on a base of an indicating needle in a plate with characters. However, in the aforementioned instrument, the small, display section is disposed almost in the same plane to the plate with the characters. The small display section and the plate with the characters are seen on a flat plane because the small display section is visualized as if it is existed almost on the same plane with the plate for characters. Therefore, there has been a problem that a sufficient visual effect can not be obtained.